This is one of Eric Ambler's first spy novels, and it's just OK. A silly plot that hasn't aged well. A broke but honorable British journalist risks life and limb in 1937 Europe to restore stolen documents from some bad guys to some good guys. The bad guys are the international oil business, in this case Romanian, while the good guys are, ahem, the Soviet Government.Yep. Oh, it's well enough crafted, with danger and suspense and that film noir feel that is characteristic of Ambler and was perfected in his other early classics, The Coffin for Dimitrios and Epitaph for a Spy. But come on.He who has ears will sometimes hear what he wants to her, in keeping with his inclinations. A lot of smart people who should have known better got the warm and fuzzies about the Soviet Union in the 1930's (Walter Duranty, or more to the point here, Graham Greene, with whom Ambler is often compared as a golden standard of the spy novel). Some did the same about the Nazis (Ezra Pound). It's a species of moral idiocy that sometimes afflicts the very talented, the supremely literate. And yet Helen Macinness' Above Suspicion, published in 1939 - same genre, roughly the same timeframe - absolutely nailed the Nazis, even at that early date, based less on their atrocities (most of which were still to come) than on their fundamental incompatibility with Western civilization. She was able to do so because she had a spot-on understanding of what that was and what made it worth fighting for, and the same moral compass guided her in her Cold War spy novels, where the villains are the Russians and others in the Socialist bloc and the conflict is over freedom. In contrast, for Ambler the main evil of our day is apparently business - not so much the Romanian oil business, which is a mere shadowy prop - but business as such: it is as though, to him, any profitable activity necessarily leads to violence, any business organization hides a racket like that of Dimitrios. Ambler was still at it three decades later, in the exceedingly bizarre Siege of the Villa Lipp, where the villainy and iniquity appear in the guise of - international tax shelters!So, evil moneymen vs nice Russian spies. Of course, his Russians are preposterous, about as plausible as Martians. The real Russians that were loose in the West at the time when Ambler was writing this could never describe themselves to a Westerner as a "private Soviet citizen with interests in Switzerland" - every word an ideological crime. "Illegals" (deep-cover sleeper agents) might claim interests in Switzerland but would then not admit to being Soviets. More importantly, they and their sisters would not have chirped in glee but blanched in terror at being recalled to the Russia: people knew that such "vacations" led to the Gulag or the grave, as the regime considered everyone who had caught even a whiff of Western air to be ideologically contaminated and no longer to be trusted. Eric Ambler, in a sense, is perhaps a transitional figure, bridging the gap between the early greats of the spy genre like Erskine Childers and John Buchan, where spying was more like a gentleman's game, and the gritty, suspenseful plots that came later, and whose imagination (in terms of the stakes of the game, the magnitude of potential evil) was informed by the memory of two world wars. So, from this standpoint, I recommend the Coffin for Dimitrios and Epitaph for a Spy, maybe also Journey into Fear. But not this one.
This was my second encounter with Ambler, after reading A Coffin for Dimitrios last summer. Although Dimitrios runs deeper and is probably the more accomplished book, this earlier example of Ambler's work is a lot more fun, with plenty of 1930s spy action, a few lovable characters and many touches of tongue-in-cheek humor.The political backstory -- a carefully plotted struggle involving Romania, Big Oil, the Soviet Union and fascist provocateurs -- is very deeply grounded, with a realism and detail that could have been ripped from the headlines of central Europe in the run-up to World War II. But the events of the novel are pure pulp, an undemanding, page-turning tale full of pitfalls and escapes that drags our hero, a down-on-his-luck journalist, ever deeper over his head in trouble. It's a fish out of water story that reminds me a lot of the movie "North By Northwest."By modern standards the book runs a pretty straightforward course, following just a handful of characters as they try to outmaneuver each other over the course of a few days. There's some gunplay, a few chases and a lot of sneaking around dark alleys. It doesn't take long to figure out who everyone is and what they want, and the end is never really in doubt. But getting there is a blast.
What do You think about Background To Danger (2001)?
There is something that really appeals to me about pre-Cold War spy stories, and in particular these books of Ambler's that take place in the build-up to WWII. There are so many shifting alliances and plays to gain control of some natural resource (here, oil), the motivations that drive the action seem so much less a matter of black and white ideological differences, and, in a sense, the stakes feel a bit lower. That could be a bad thing, but here it makes it easier for the book to be fun, without the harrowing tension of somebody like Le Carre. This one has a common feature in books featuring an amateur detective/spy— a main character you regularly want to slap for being so dumb— but that isn't really a flaw; it's a well-written and nicely paced spy story.
—John
Ambler, Eric. UNCOMMON DANGER. (1937). ****.tIn pre-WW-II Europe, Kenton, a free-lance journalist is in Nuremburg investigating a story about a top-level meeting of Nazi officers. He gets his story, then takes the time to join in on an organized card game at his hotel. In spite of knowing better, he plays until he loses his last mark. An acquaintance there offers to lend him 100 marks, and Kenton accepts. He boards a train to Vienna, where he has a friend who might be able to lend him more money until his next article sale. On the train, he shares a compartment with a man who says he is an escaping Jew trying to get to Vienna with his money and valuable papers. He offers Kenton 400 marks to take the papers across the border for him. Being in a bind, Kenton agrees to do that, and to deliver the package to this man’s hotel in the city. When Kenton gets to Vienna and to the designated hotel, he finds the man dead on the floor, with a knife sticking out of his stomace. With this relatively trite start, Ambler takes on a thrilling ride around central Europe as Kenton is pursued by multi-national gangs of agents after the papers he has in his possession. The action is non-stop and the descriptions of places and events spare. Our hero is forced to decide which of the pursuing agents is really on the right side and to make instant decisions to save his life. Ambler demonstrates his skill in forming an exciting espionage novel that carries us along to the very end while we are sitting on the edge of our seats. Recommended.
—Tony
I'm am surprised I enjoyed this as much as I did! It's not the typical type of story I read. The mysteries I'm used to reading are far more "fluffy" than this. However, the characters in "Background to Danger" were so intriguing and - oddly enough, warm - that I found myself sucked into the characters as much as the mystery.I've only given this four stars because, really, of my own personal tastes and lack of knowledge on the countries and foreign relationships the story deals with. I'm sure the book is worthy of 5 stars for anyone who knows more about this era, and is more used to this kind of mystery.Being the squimish person that I am, I was very pleased that the book isn't very graphic. Yes, people get killed, but, happily, Ambler doesn't go into much detail.I also appreciated the good guy/bad guy, somewhat blurred lines of right and wrong... the story presents interesting circumstances that place our protagonists in situations where what would appear to be "wrong" is, perhaps, actually "right." This said, the story focuses on the mystery and the "messages" aren't overly apparent and really just a subtext for those wishing to seek them.This is a very interesting read and I'd be more than happy to read it again and partake of another Ambler adventure.
—Ann
